Evaluation of a School based Health Education Model on Malaria: A Randomized Control Trial

Malaria has always been significant health problem in India as 95% of the people in the country reside in Malaria endemic areas. Of the 305,000 deaths due to malaria in 2010 globally, 85,000 occurred in children less than 15 years of age. Moreover the complications are severe in children due to inadequate immunity, malnutrition and anaemia leading to cerebral malaria, severe, behavioural changes and permanent neurological deficit. Health education has been an important component in any disease control programme, hence innovative preventive approaches must be developed in order to control malaria.

The objectives of this study were to develop a malaria health education model and to evaluate its effectiveness in changing knowledge, attitudes and behaviour among high school children.

Six high schools were chosen and paired for evaluation of the health education model. One school of each pair was subjected to the health education model in three sessions over 3 consecutive days. Post-test evaluation was done to assess the changes in the knowledge and attitude of the children towards malaria using a structured questionnaire.

The mean test score in the intervention group before and after the intervention were 7.42+1.93 and 12.29+2.5 (d=4.85), the results showed clearly significant improvement in knowledge and attitude and scores in the intervention group. The children could easily recall and associate causes and symptoms of malaria, however no immediate behavioural changes were seen in the children.

This simple and practical model is aimed at improving the knowledge about malaria in school children thereby bringing about a behavioural change in the children. This study will also attempt to prove that the simple 3 hour sessions added in the children's curriculum can improve the children's understanding of the disease and aid in the prevention of the disease.